By Canadian Press

Surging Elks lick Stamps 37-16 to escape West basement

Sep 7, 2024 | 8:31 PM

EDMONTON — McLeod Bethel-Thompson threw a pair of touchdown passes as the Edmonton Elks defeated the Calgary Stampeders 37-16 on Saturday to leapfrog their Alberta rivals into fourth place in the West Division.

Edmonton (5-8) has now won five of its last six games after a woeful 0-7 start to the season that included firing Chris Jones and bringing in Jarious Jackson.

Calgary (4-8) has now lost four straight for the first time since 2004 — a span of 331 games. The Stampeders have yet to win a game on the road, dropping to 0-6 away from home.

The game started with Edmonton recording a pair of punt singles, with a 32-yard field goal by Calgary’s Rene Paredes sandwiched in-between.

The Stampeders then marched all the way down to the Edmonton six-yard line, but quarterback Logan Bonner was intercepted in the end zone by Loucheiz Purifoy.

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The Elks started the second quarter with a huge play as Bethel-Thompson sent a deep pass to Hergy Mayala for what turned into a 60-yard touchdown play. The two-point convert pass to Eugene Lewis was also good.

Calgary responded with a 42-yard field goal by Paredes.

Edmonton made it 17-6 midway through the second as Bethel-Thompson handed it off to receiver Tevin Jones on a wide sweep for a 13-yard TD.

The Elks got a 41-yard field goal from Boris Bede with a minute to play and then added another from 20 yards out to close out the first half after an interception by Nick Anderson.

Calgary got the first points after a sluggish start to the third by both teams, adding a 46-yard Paredes field goal with 31/2 minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Edmonton countered with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Lewis to start the fourth quarter.

A Calgary third-down gamble failed with just under 10 minutes to play deep in Edmonton territory, but the Stamps would end up getting their first major score of the game a few minutes later anyway, as Bethel-Thompson was intercepted by defensive lineman Mike Rose, and he took it back 83 yards for the touchdown.

Calgary turned over the ball on downs again, this time on their own 21-yard line, with three minutes to play, quickly leading to a five-yard touchdown run by Justin Rankin.

Bonner was picked off for a fourth time with just under two minutes to play as he was intercepted by Devodric Bynum at the Edmonton 27-yard line and then a fifth time by Bynum again in the end zone as time expired.

NOTES

Edmonton won the first half of the home-and-home series with the Stamps 35-20 last Monday in Calgary, with Bethel-Thompson passing for a career-high 486 yards. Because of that superb showing, MBT remained the starter, despite Tre Ford coming back from injury. … Bonner took over as the Stampeders’ starting quarterback for Jake Maier, who threw four interceptions on Labour Day. It was Bonner’s first start of the season. … Elks RB Kevin Brown passed 2,000 rushing yards for his career. … Edmonton WR Tevin Jones came into the contest leading the league with an average of 27.4 yards per catch. … Paredes, who has played 223 consecutive games for Calgary, moved past Dave Cutler into eighth all-time in CFL scoring.

UP NEXT

Stampeders: Host the Montreal Alouettes (10-2) on Saturday, Sept. 14.

Elks: Bye week, then host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (7-6) on Saturday, Sept. 21.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.

Shane Jones, The Canadian Press